2014 NFL Season

[Senator Clay Davis]

Buck Fon Jovi

Terry and Kim Pegula have struck a tentative deal to purchase the Buffalo Bills, and an official announcement should be made today, The Buffalo News has learned.

Two sources involved in the sales process informed The News the Pegulas have outdistanced every other suitor.

“Done deal,” one source said this morning in a text to The News.

The NFL’s owners must approve the sale, which is expected. Their next scheduled meeting is Oct. 7 and 8 in Manhattan.

The purchase price is believed to be in the neighborhood of $1 billion.

Binding bids were submitted Monday to Morgan Stanley, the financial advisers representing Ralph C. Wilson’s trust.

Runners-up include billionaire developer Donald Trump and a group fronted by rock star Jon Bon Jovi with financial backing from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Chairman Larry Tanenbaum and Rogers Communications heir Edward Rogers III.

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/09...buffalo-bills/

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Maybe one of our resident Saints fans can chime in here, but after just learning the origins of "who dat," how the hell is that not considered offensive and racist as all ####? I mean, I guess it's not using a racial slur as your team's name, but god damn.

Perhaps you can explain? I thought it was a term of endearment used by the people of New Orleans.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Perhaps you can explain? I thought it was a term of endearment used by the people of New Orleans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat%3F

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-da...ase-of-who-dat

The whole phrase is “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”—and, while one could put it in the category of sports regionalisms like “dem Bums” and “go Stillers,” the Los Angeles Times’s Readers’ Representative has, for example, had to deal with a reader from La Puente who

said he was “outraged” by the headlines “couched in minstrel show dialect.”

“However, the usage is far from racist,” the Readers’ Representative said, noting that it was “ubiquitous in New Orleans,” and even the subject of an N.F.L. copyright dispute. (The N.F.L. backed down, sort of.) But the Times acknowledged that the phrase “does go back to minstrelsy.”

[habernac]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

I can only speak for myself, but even though I had an idea what happened, seeing it with my own eyes just made it so much worse. It wasn't just the punch itself, but how calm and cool he was standing there after she was out and how he dragged her out of the elevator. Made it more disgusting, imo.



Doesn't surprise me at all, that place should be pretty packed. Before or after the celebration make sure you take a few minutes to check out the hallway between the rink and the gym......lots of Trail area sports memorabilia on display, lots of Smokies stuff.



Obviously depends how heavy your foot is on the pedal, but it will be less than 7. Should be somewhere around 6 1/2.

I did it in 7 pulling a trailer, transplant.

Hadn't heard he had died. Sorry, man.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Yeah, this is on her husband. I do feel bad for her though. It's probably not the best feeling to have a bunch of strangers view what was probably one of the most experiences of her life. Not to mention the fact that she has a young daughter and this is probably going to raise a lot of questions regarding how they're going to be able to support themselves financially.

Just imagine what her parents must think. How could you look at your son in law in a positive light again after seeing film of him knocking your daughter out cold and dragging her limp body around like it was a piece of meat? I can't imagine this is going well within her family. If I was her brother I would have a hard time being in the same room as him.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by troutman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat%3F

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-da...ase-of-who-dat

The whole phrase is “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”—and, while one could put it in the category of sports regionalisms like “dem Bums” and “go Stillers,” the Los Angeles Times’s Readers’ Representative has, for example, had to deal with a reader from La Puente who

said he was “outraged” by the headlines “couched in minstrel show dialect.”

“However, the usage is far from racist,” the Readers’ Representative said, noting that it was “ubiquitous in New Orleans,” and even the subject of an N.F.L. copyright dispute. (The N.F.L. backed down, sort of.) But the Times acknowledged that the phrase “does go back to minstrelsy.”

That clears it up a bit better than the original thing I had read. Still, the whole "well much of the black community has embraced it" reads somewhat similar to stuff found on RedskinsFacts, not to mention that white people chanting something that was used heavily in minstrel shows is still kind of messed up.

As for your actual dose of ####ed up racism, we turn our attention to the usual suspects:

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

And TMZ says the NFL simply never asked for the video from the casino. TMZ did and it got the tape. So at best for Goodell here he can claim gross negligence in the investigation which, factored in with his other missteps as commish, should be enough to get him fired. But since he makes the owners money hand over fist, I doubt anything happens.

But didn't the NFL get their cronies in the media (ie King and Mortensen) to say back in July that the NFL had seen everything and it was a mitigating factor in the 2 game suspension?

The NFL's position is unattainable. Either they lied back in July or they lied yesterday.

[lanny9]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

But didn't the NFL get their cronies in the media (ie King and Mortensen) to say back in July that the NFL had seen everything and it was a mitigating factor in the 2 game suspension?

The NFL's position is unattainable. Either they lied back in July or they lied yesterday.

Doubt it will come to this but I think Goodall should step down, he has handled this situation poorly and it makes the league look bad the world over.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The NFL's position is unattainable. Either they lied back in July or they lied yesterday.

Yep. This is an article from August 4th.

The league had no comment on whether it has seen the tape, continuing its position of refraining from speaking about what was and what wasn’t considered in fashioning Rice’s two-game suspension. It’s our understanding, however, that the NFL did not obtain the video of the incident.

“When we’re going through the process of evaluating the issue and whether there will be discipline, you look at all of the facts that you have available,” Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters on Friday. “Law enforcement normally has more — on a normal basis — has more information, facts, than we have. We’ll get as much as we possibly can.”

Given the ease with which the NFL could have gotten the video — by simply telling Rice that he must direct his lawyer to produce it to the league office — the league could have gotten the video, if it really wanted to get the video. Either the NFL didn’t think of making that request (which is highly unlikely), or the NFL deliberately chose not to.

Maybe the league decided that there was nothing to see. After all, Rice admitted to the behavior, and the prosecutors allowed him to enter a diversionary program based in part on the contents of the video. Still, when Goodell says that the league will “get as much as we possibly can,” the universe of possibilities in this case absolutely includes the video.

If the league truly hasn’t seen it, the league will now have to wonder whether someone eventually will leak it to the media. Which could result in even more criticism of the discipline that eventually was imposed on Rice.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ay-rice-video/

Very interested to hear the NFL's spin on this. They screwed up and they know it, how will they handle it?

[psyang]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

But didn't the NFL get their cronies in the media (ie King and Mortensen) to say back in July that the NFL had seen everything and it was a mitigating factor in the 2 game suspension?

The NFL's position is unattainable. Either they lied back in July or they lied yesterday.

Yeah, the article (written May 24) that Clay Davis posted , has this quote:

The lawyer also implied strongly that, as previously reported elsewhere, video of the punch from Rice exists. If the case had been litigated, the video would have eventually been made public. With the video of Rice dragging a mostly-unconscious Janay out of an elevator doing major damage to Rice’s reputation, video of Rice throwing a knockout blow to a woman possibly would have killed it.

It’s now clear that Rice opted to enter into the diversionary program both to prevent the video from ever coming out (there’s a chance it still will) and to avoid having to embarrass Janay by highlighting her own behavior in the hopes of excusing his.

[GirlySports]

^^

Yup. This is the part I don't get. In a normal DV case, it's one person's word against another's. I can see putting that person through the diversionary process. However, in this case, the DA doesn't need the victim to testify. The videos (both in and out of the elevator) shows exactly what happened and that is enough to convict I would imagine. If not convict, then at least pressure the abuser into accepting a plea of some kind that includes jail time, probation and anger management classes. I just can't get past the idea that the DA let Rice off with a slap on the wrist.

[KelVarnsen]

Money and fame help

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Money and fame help

I thought money and fame would make the DA even more ambitious. There have been many cases of a DA over-reaching to get attention. Such as the Travvon murder trail. That was never a murder case.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Yep. This is an article from August 4th.



http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ay-rice-video/

Very interested to hear the NFL's spin on this. They screwed up and they know it, how will they handle it?

I don't get this stance. Ray Rice admitted his guilt to them so really all the tape does is reaffirm what the NFL already knew. They knew he struck his girlfriend and deemed it worthy of a two game suspension. The tape only reaffirms what Rice already admitted. The bottom line is that nothing has changed. The initial ruling was too soft but the NFL already admitted that mistake prior to the release of the video. IMO this is all getting a little silly as there seems to be a witch hunt based on outrage of the video and I just don't accept that people should be more angry today than they were last week as we all knew last week Rice struck her then as well.

The big benefactors of all this is law enforcement who really dropped the ball on this as they saw the tape and let Rice enter pretrial intervention program to which they will drop the charges. My question is how can Michael Vick spend two years in jail for abusing dogs while Rice gets off scot free for abusing a woman? Forget about the NFL, the real travesty is justice system.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't get this stance. Ray Rice admitted his guilt to them so really all the tape does is reaffirm what the NFL already knew. They knew he struck his girlfriend and deemed it worthy of a two game suspension. The tape only reaffirms what Rice already admitted. The bottom line is that nothing has changed. The initial ruling was too soft but the NFL already admitted that mistake prior to the release of the video. IMO this is all getting a little silly as there seems to be a witch hunt based on outrage of the video and I just don't accept that people should be more angry today than they were last week as we all knew last week Rice struck her then as well.

The big benefactors of all this is law enforcement who really dropped the ball on this as they saw the tape and let Rice enter pretrial intervention program to which they will drop the charges. My question is how can Michael Vick spend two years in jail for abusing dogs while Rice gets off scot free for abusing a woman? Forget about the NFL, the real travesty is justice system.

It's something else to see a completely remorseless person standing over the woman he just knocked out. I'm not shocked at all by the outrage the video has caused. This is no witch hunt

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't get this stance. Ray Rice admitted his guilt to them so really all the tape does is reaffirm what the NFL already knew. They knew he struck his girlfriend and deemed it worthy of a two game suspension. The tape only reaffirms what Rice already admitted. The bottom line is that nothing has changed.

The NFL said they looked at every piece of evidence available to them, when clearly they did not. They either didn't try very hard, or not at all. It was an incident they clearly wanted to sweep under the rug and try to forget about it. Either way, they come out of this looking pretty bad. And that's without the 2 game suspension he received originally which was also a joke.

If the league is serious about domestic abuse, get serious about it. Don't make up stories, don't give out 2 game suspensions, don't give out 6 game suspensions. If a player is found guilty or admits slapping or punching a woman he should be gone for one year minimum, if not for life.

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Well they still have Rivers. He's a reckless QB and has always been his own worst enemy. He was taking way too long to get balls snapped and that botched snap was all on him. He's the NFL's version of Henry Burris. Great plays followed by stupid plays. Trent Dilfer summed it up last night about him perfectly; "He makes the hard plays look easy and the easy plays look hard". Chargers will never be anything more than the playoff bubble team with him as he's careless with the ball.

the snap was on him but looking at the Chargers, without him, they would be basement dwellers every year. their defense has been soft forever, no real running game until last year and a poor o line.... he is a top 10 QB, no question, i dont think he holds them back, fumbled snap yesterday not withstanding

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

the snap was on him but looking at the Chargers, without him, they would be basement dwellers every year. their defense has been soft forever, no real running game until last year and a poor o line.... he is a top 10 QB, no question, i dont think he holds them back, fumbled snap yesterday not withstanding

IMO he's a slightly better version of Tony Romo. Good enough to get you to .500 and maybe even win a playoff game but not good enough to every take a team to a Superbowl. He's had lots of offensive tools over the years in Sproles, Tomlinson, Vincent Jackson, Gates, etc and any average QB is going to put up solid numbers with a talented cast like that. I just knew he and the team were going to choke the game away last night as it's what they do especially in primetime and the plays were self inflicted with two dropped interceptions, fumbled snap, terrible short punt, etc and that's the stuff that Chargers fans used to blame on Turner.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

The NFL said they looked at every piece of evidence available to them, when clearly they did not. They either didn't try very hard, or not at all. It was an incident they clearly wanted to sweep under the rug and try to forget about it. Either way, they come out of this looking pretty bad. And that's without the 2 game suspension he received originally which was also a joke.

If the league is serious about domestic abuse, get serious about it. Don't make up stories, don't give out 2 game suspensions, don't give out 6 game suspensions. If a player is found guilty or admits slapping or punching a woman he should be gone for one year minimum, if not for life.

Why should the league be more serious about abuse than the authorities? There is a collective bargaining agreement and the NFL just can't suspend players if they aren't criminally charged as the NFLPA will appeal. While Rice admitted hitting her the local law enforcement decided it wasn't worthy of a criminal charge. Like I said before most of the blame lies with them as if he got charged and convicted Rice would have been suspended indefinitely the first time.

[KelVarnsen]

The way I look at it is everyone failed. Ray Rice failed for striking a woman, the authorities failed for the way they handled it, the NFL & Ravens failed for not doing they due diligence in investigating, just so much failure.